Integrated Sensing, Computation, Control and Communication Solution: Creating New Blue Ocean for 5G Applications

Overview

In the 5G-Advanced stage, in addition to improving communication performance, how to leverage 5G advantages and bring more profit growth is an issue that the entire telecom industry needs to consider. The integrated sensing and communication is one of the promising approaches for the telecom industry to empower thousands of industries. In July 2021, the IMT2020 Promotion Group established the Communication and Sensing Convergence Task Force to carry out research into 5G-Advanced scenarios, technologies, experiments and standards. ZTE has actively participated in promoting the evolution of 5G-Advanced and proposed an integrated sensing, computation, control and communication solution that can provide innovative ideas for the expansion of commercial 5G networks in vertical industries.

There are requirements for sensing services in thousands of industries, and the sensing services that meet these requirements need dedicated spectrum resources and networks. The widely deployed 5G network has unique networking advantages, wide coverage and large-scale antenna arrays. It can be upgraded through software and hardware to have native sensing capability while meeting the communication requirements. With the advantages of wide coverage, multiple sensing nodes can be converged to form a sensing network.

With higher requirements for communication capabilities, 5G-Advanced will expand deeper into vertical industries and explore more intelligent fields from supporting Internet of everything to enabling intelligent Internet of everything. The integrated sensing and communication means to use the same equipment and network to deliver two types of services: communication and sensing. It can sense the direction, distance and speed of a target, and detect, capture, track, and image the target. In this way, tasks in the communication network can be extended and sensing services can be universally implemented, and a low-cost, high-precision, and seamless ubiquitous communication and sensing integrated network can be built up to meet the industry need for one network with multiple capabilities.

Solution

ZTE has innovatively proposed its integrated sensing, computation, control and communication solution to promote digitalization and empower the industry (Fig. 1). The solution implements integrated design of communication, sensing, computation, and control functions through hardware sharing and spectrum sharing.

• Integrated Sensing and Communication

ZTE is the first in the industry to use a single AAU to transmit and receive communication and sensing signals. The single-site sensing has more flexible and convenient networking over multi-site sensing. Based on LFM/OFDM waveforms, ZTE transmits sensing and communication signals in time division multiplexing. In network architecture, a single integrated AAU is used for high-frequency integrated sensing and communication, while a collaborative sensing network is used for low-frequency integrated sensing and communication. Moreover, the sensing distance of the integrated sensing, computation, control and communication prototype can be improved by increasing the transmit power and antenna gain, and its sensing precision can be enhanced by using the 100M bandwidth and increasing antenna isolation.

• Integrated Computation and Control

ZTE deploys the sensing computing function on its unique NodeEngine to implement the computation and and control of the entire system, including sensing computing, target identification, track prediction, monitoring control, and video processing. The functionalities are exposed to industrial applications to form a closed-loop system that deeply integrates with the industry.

Application Scenarios

Based on the ubiquitous sensing capability provided by 5G base stations, the integrated sensing, computation, control and communication system has wide application scenarios.

• Smart low altitude: The integrated sensing, computation, control and communication system can sense drones and implement low-altitude security in airports, government buildings, and scientific research institutions. In addition, path planning and route management of the logistics drone can also be implemented.
• Smart transportation: In the Internet of vehicles scenario, the integrated sensing, computation, control and communication system can identify and sense the road itself and the road environment, identify the position, speed, and movement direction of the vehicle, and implement communication between vehicles and between the vehicle and infrastructure.
• Smart life: Smart health care can be provided by monitoring the heartbeat and breathing of the human body. Gesture recognition and motion recognition can also be performed to control the smart home.
• Smart industry: In the future, intelligent robots and AGV vehicles need to provide high-precision sensing capabilities. Through the sensing information, intelligent production and control of a smart factory can be implemented.

Prototype Verification

ZTE has accomplished the prototype verification of its integrated sensing, computation, control and communication. The verification shows ZTE’s technical strength and successful applications in this field.

• Trial in low-altitude security of parks: ZTE accomplished industry’s first trial of integrated sensing, computation, control and communication with a single AAU in July 2022. The trial witnessed ZTE’s successful application of the integrated sensing, computation, control, and communication system in the low-altitude security of parks. It can integrate the security facilities of the parks and provide the five-in-one low-altitude security solution that covers detection, positioning, identification, tracking and countermeasures. In this trial, the system achieves a sub-meter sensing accuracy and a sensing distance of more than 1 km by using a single AAU.
• Sensing of smart transportation scenarios: ZTE tested and verified the sensing of vehicles and pedestrians in smart transportation scenarios based on real traffic conditions and enterprise campus scenarios in November 2022. In traffic scenarios, the integrated sensing, computation, control and communication system detects the sensing distance of over 800 meters and reaches a decimeter sensing precision. The system can track and identify the lane change of a single vehicle, which verifies the feasibility of vehicle and pedestrian tracking and detection based on the integrated sensing and communication. In addition, the detection system can also provide the capability exposure of the sensing platform, and implement security control collaboration of pedestrian invasion based on sensing data, which is helpful to implement security management in smart parks.
• Test of low-frequency integrated sensing and communication: ZTE completed the sensing test and verification of outdoor drones, vehicles, and pedestrians, and breathing sensing in indoor scenarios by using 4.9 GHz low-frequency 5G commercial base stations in November 2022. The verification results show that outdoor low-altitude drones can sense the maximum distance of more than 1400 meters in a certain environment, and can also sense multi-target movement trail of drones, vehicles and pedestrians. In indoor scenarios, line-of-sight and non-line-of-sight breathing sensing tests are carried out. In line-of-sight scenarios, the breathing monitoring capability is equivalent to that of commercial breathing monitoring instruments, with an accuracy rate of more than 95%.

With massive and ubiquitous deployment of 5G base stations, the integrated sensing, computation, control and communication system will have many advantages such as large-scale continuous coverage, low costs and easy deployment. It will be a bridge between the physical world and the digital world, and also be a powerful means for the telecom industry to empower thousands of industries. Operators can deploy the system to enable traditional base stations to provide radar sensing capabilities while delivering mobile communication capabilities, and the relevant data can be provided to different industry users to create more value.